Bluestalking

LATEST ARTICLES ( 176 )

• 1. What's the Best Part About Blogging? Any Special Stand...

  1. What's the best part about blogging? Any special standout experiences? Largely that it caters nicely to my massive ego. I like the freedom to do whatever I... Read more

  Posted on 15 August 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Booker Longlist 2012 Read: The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng

  

  The Garden of Evening Mists by Tan Twan Eng. Penguin. May 2012 (UK). [Personal copy.] Quick rundown: Beautiful title, gorgeous cover, dull book alleviated by... Read more

  Posted on 10 August 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Booker Longlist 2012 Read: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

  

  The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry: A Novel by Rachel Joyce. Random House. July 2012. [Library copy.] Honestly, I meant it - at the time - when I said I... Read more

  Posted on 05 August 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Interview with Mr. Sebastian Barry

  

  Dedicated Bluestalking readers (I adore both of you!!) will be all too familiar with my feelings of worship respect for Irish author Sebastian Barry, as well... Read more

  Posted on 01 August 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Breaking News: Man Booker Longlist 2012

  

  The Longlist - 2012 Communion Town Sam Thompson Narcopolis Jeet Thayil Philida André Brink Skios Michael Frayn The Garden of Evening Mists Tan Twan Eng The... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Guardian 1000 Reads: Death in Venice by Thomas Mann

  

  Death in Venice by Thomas Mann, 1912 Death in Venice is a novella and the plot is quite simple: aging composer Gustav von Aschenbach - a man in his fifties,... Read more

  Posted on 25 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Bachelorette Reads - July 2012

  

  No, I'm not writing about '50 Shades...' or anything sordid implied by my crazy-racy post title. No strippers, no wild, drunken parties, no sexytime. Sorry to... Read more

  Posted on 24 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Julian Barnes - A Life with Books

  

  . Jonathan Cape/Random House, 2012. 27 pp. [Personal copy.] Novelist, essayist, Booker Prize winner and all around genius writer Julian Barnes published this... Read more

  Posted on 20 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• First Love by Joyce Carol Oates

  

  First Love: A Gothic Tale by Joyce Carol Oates, Illus. by Marry Moses φ The Echo Press/W.W. Norton 1996 86 pp. [Library copy.] I'm a fervent fan of Joyce Carol... Read more

  Posted on 19 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• How to Write a Novel: Borrow, Just Don't Steal

  

  Plots, Plots, Plots! When last I wrote we were discussing Freytag's Triangle, the classic framework for storytelling. At the end of the post I mentioned it's... Read more

  Posted on 18 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Dave Dave Eggers: A Hologram for the King

  

  A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers McSweeney's; First Edition edition (June 19, 2012) I'm not particularly an Eggers fan, or particularly not. I don't follo... Read more

  Posted on 16 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Sunday Salon: July 15, 2012

  

  Busy reading weekend if not a particularly remarkable week, otherwise. The highlight was taking the cat to the vet to find out if there's a medical reason he's... Read more

  Posted on 15 July 2012 DIARIES, SELF EXPRESSION

• Foster by Claire Keegan

  

  Faber and Faber, 2010 [Library copy] Her mother pregnant with the latest of her seemingly endless siblings, Leanbh is sent to live with her aunt and uncle on a... Read more

  Posted on 12 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Write of Way: How to Write a Novel

  

  In early August I'm going on a self-imposed solitary writing retreat for just shy of a week. Left to my own devices at home there are always a million reasons... Read more

  Posted on 11 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

  

  Random House, 2012 269 pp. [Library copy] The premise is simple but brilliant: one day the earth's rotation begins to slow; from that point things rapidly... Read more

  Posted on 10 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• My Abject Apology to Miss Jane Austen: A Guardian 1,000 Novels Tale

  

  Turn away now, Austenites! I'm about to make a statement you will find vulgar and unfitting for a lady of good breeding: I've abandoned my reread of Pride and... Read more

  Posted on 09 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Hodge Podge of Books

  

  Busy reading for review and even a bit for optional review. I always manage to squeeze in a little of both. That's what they call "life balance. Read more

  Posted on 07 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• Friday Links: Literary & Otherwise

  

  Fifty Most Important Landmarks of the World, Pt. 1: via pxleyes 13 Trickiest Grammar Hang-Ups, via Writers Digest Rare Paul McCartney Photos: via Huffington Pos... Read more

  Posted on 06 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE

• And She Doesn't Look a Day Over 235

  

  Will be out rockets red glaring this evening, along with half the American population, save those who are curmudgeonly sticks in the mud. Read more

  Posted on 04 July 2012 SELF EXPRESSION

• Bondage, Six Pack Abs and Those Who Love Them

  I should get some flipping nice hits for today's subject line but I needed a bit of a break from my recent seriousness. My regular readership must think the rea... Read more

  Posted on 03 July 2012 BOOKS, CULTURE